Aerobatic Trajectory Generation for a VTOL Fixed-Wing Aircraft Using Differential Flatness

TL;DR

This paper introduces a differential flatness-based algorithm for generating aerobatic trajectories for VTOL tailsitter aircraft, enabling agile maneuvers by exploiting the full flight envelope with a 6DOF model.

Contribution

It derives the differential flatness property of the global tailsitter dynamics and develops an efficient, online capable trajectory generation method for aerobatic maneuvers.

Findings

Successfully generated six aerobatic maneuvers in flight experiments.

Demonstrated time-optimal drone racing trajectory planning.

Achieved complex aerobatic sequences in airshow-like demonstrations.

Abstract

This paper proposes a novel algorithm for aerobatic trajectory generation for a vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) tailsitter flying wing aircraft. The algorithm differs from existing approaches for fixed-wing trajectory generation, as it considers a realistic six-degree-of-freedom (6DOF) flight dynamics model, including aerodynamics equations. Using a global dynamics model enables the generation of aerobatics trajectories that exploit the entire flight envelope, enabling agile maneuvering through the stall regime, sideways uncoordinated flight, inverted flight etc. The method uses the differential flatness property of the global tailsitter flying wing dynamics, which is derived in this work. By performing snap minimization in the differentially flat output space, a computationally efficient algorithm, suitable for online motion planning, is obtained. The algorithm is demonstrated in extensive flight experiments encompassing six aerobatics maneuvers, a time-optimal drone racing trajectory, and an airshow-like aerobatic sequence for three tailsitter aircraft.